What is the "public world"? What is "home on earth"? What's the difference between them?

Mencius developed the idea of "destiny has virtue" and put forward the famous conclusion that "those who win the hearts of the people win the world" Disciple once asked him if Yao ever ceded the world to Shun. Mencius said no, because the transfer of the world is not controlled by individual will, but depends on public opinion, that is, "win the hearts of the people and be the son of heaven" ("Mencius wholeheartedly"), and then he came to the famous theory that "he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world": "He who loses the world loses his people; If you lose the people, you lose your heart. Get the way of the world, win the hearts of the people and win the world; Get the people to know the Tao, win the hearts of the people, and win the people. " Mencius' theory of "popular support" greatly highlights the historical position and role of the people. It not only denies the traditional superstition of divine right of monarchy, but also deliberately highlights the power of the people: the monarchy is noble and powerful, but it is endowed by the people. Therefore, the person who gives the monarch power is the first power holder and the ultimate power holder. Obviously, Mencius' theory of popular support provides a direct and powerful ideological basis for "the world is the world for all".

Finally, it is the support of "people-oriented theory". China's ancient people-oriented thought is extremely rich, and its essence has three aspects.

First, judging from the composition of the country, the people are the foundation of the country. For example, Sima Guang compared the people to "the foundation of the country" and "the people are the foundation of the country" (Cherish Time). Without a foundation, you can't afford to build a house. Similarly, without people, there would certainly be no country. The people are the prerequisite for the founding of the country. "Everyone says: the world, the country. Who is the world? Who is the country? Just people. Supplement:

Name of Home World: Home World

Pinyin: Jiātiān Xia

Explanation: It means that the emperor appropriated state power for himself and attacked each other from generation to generation. It is said that the emperor regarded the country as private property, which was handed down from generation to generation.

According to the Book of Rites, the society before Yu was a society of great harmony. At that time, all the property was public (public in the world), and leaders were elected according to it (selecting talents and appointing people). When it comes to the society after Yu, it is pointed out that the state property has become private property (the world is home), private ownership has become legal, and it is a matter of course that the father dies and the child succeeds (adults think it is a gift). Therefore, the family world is the product of historical development to a certain stage. The slogan of the Western Zhou Dynasty is "All over the world, it is the land of kings, the land of command, and the minister of kings?" It was further proposed that all the land and subjects in the world should be regarded as the private property of the royal family.

It is difficult to study the history of the ancient three emperors and five emperors. According to Confucian theory, Yao Shun, an ancient sage, is an example for the whole world. People have reason to doubt what the actual situation is. However, in the absence of conclusive counterexamples, it is not unreasonable to regard the social governance of ancient sages as an ideal, even if there may be beautification. After all, among the three ways to govern the world, "public governance" is the most accepted. Sun Yat-sen's "the world is for the public" also means this. "Governing the world" is also considered as the embodiment of democracy, but the reality of ancient society determines that ancient democracy and modern democracy have different ways of expression. Due to the historical limitations in transportation, communication and education, we cannot say that there is no democracy just because there was no voting in ancient times. Moreover, democracy is not simply equivalent to voting.

In human history, all parts of the world have long been "home to the world", and the consanguineous inheritance relationship between emperors is one of the obvious manifestations of "home to the world". However, no matter how big the family is, in the face of complex social management, there will still be times when it is unable to do so. Therefore, all the "home world" in ancient and modern China and foreign countries need help. Under the feudal system, the helper of "family and the world" was the nobility. A headed "Wang family" and a group of aristocratic families formed a community of interests. Of course, these interest communities, because they are all hereditary, will also have conflicts of interest, thus forming mutual checks and balances. China's ancient "home world" was closer to that of the Zhou Dynasty in Europe. Zhou enfeoffment clan, the purpose is that when threatened, clan leaders will jointly protect the son of heaven and common interests.

After the Qin Dynasty, great changes have taken place in China's "home world". Since the Qin dynasty abolished the feudal system, the helper of "home to the world" is no longer a clan vassal. In the early years of the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, as a transitional period, the helpers of "family and the world" appeared different situations. It is up to the royal family to judge whether the talents and officials needed by Qin State and the royal family are in line with the interests of "home and the world". It has both standards and great freedom. Compared with Europe's "home is the world", because Europe can only use nobles, the freedom of choice is limited. Since the state of Qin, it is normal that a large number of civilians have been recognized by the royal family for their talents, promoted and made a fortune, and occupied high positions. In this sense, China has attached great importance to the selection of talents among the common people since Qin. Although the main body of choice is the royal family, it is possible for civilians to change their own destiny. This achievement is more advanced than that in Europe during the Enlightenment, and it has also become an important content for European Enlightenment to learn from China.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, "home and the world" was retrogressive compared with the Qin Dynasty, but it did not completely retreat to the Zhou Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, feudal princes were enfeoffed, which formally borrowed from the decentralization of the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty. The difference is that the feudal governors of the Zhou Dynasty were all clan relatives and were also called patriarchal clan system by later generations. The Western Han Dynasty enfeoffed many governors with different surnames. These princes with different surnames are civilians recognized by the royal family for their meritorious military service or other outstanding contributions. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the way of separation of powers among governors was abolished. It is an important turning point in the history of China that how to implement the management of "family is the world".

One of the starting points of the feudal system in the Zhou Dynasty was that for the safety of the emperor, the clan, as a member or helper of the "family", shared some rights from the emperor and became an agreement for mutual exchange. Because Qin formulated a whole set of legal systems and effectively concentrated power in the central government, a new system changed the way of defending the royal power. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, due to the continuation of the Qin system by the central government, the vassals who were enfeoffed not only failed to defend the imperial power, but became a threat. In other words, in the face of powerful centralization, the significance of vassals' protection of imperial power "home to the world" has been lost. If the feudal system is defended by many "small families", then centralization is the only "home" in the world. This unique "home" is obviously huge. In fact, there are two problems to be solved: one is not threatening the "home world", and the other is effective management.

Thus came the Confucian "official boundary". "Officialdom" appeared in the Qin Dynasty, and it was born out of feudal princes. Under centralization, the power of local officials is similar to that of vassals. The difference is that, first, the benefits of local officials do not belong to themselves like princes, but to the central court; Second, for governors, there is no other supervision system except spies, while there is a special supervision system for local officials. The so-called "secretariat" is an official of this nature. Third, the governor is hereditary and local officials can be replaced at any time. This is true for local officials, and the system of "official circles" is also true for officials of the central court. The communication between central officials and local officials is also guaranteed by the same standards and systems.

The Confucian principle of "ruling the world" inherited the civilian principle of the Qin Dynasty. Except for prostitutes, actors, beggars and other special groups, the vast majority of ordinary people have the opportunity to fully display their talents. However, compared with the previous selection of officials, there is an important breakthrough: the selection of officials is no longer entirely a preference of "family background", but has an objective standard to some extent. In Confucian theory, the primary condition of this objective standard is morality. The moral quality of an official requires him to consciously put the interests of the people first, that is, put the interests of most people first. A good official who loves and cares about the people will naturally get the heartfelt support of the people. Along with moral awareness, the Confucian "official circle" also has a system to ensure that officials are decoupled from interest groups, such as officials are not allowed to do business. After a period of exploration, the imperial examination system finally established the practical rules of the system and standards. Compared with "Ju Lian" and "Xiao Ju", "Imperial Examination" not only ensured the moral literacy of officials, but also increased the requirements of knowledge literacy.

The social management system of Confucianism ruling the world has been the best system for a long time, and so far, many of its beneficial components still play a role in modern society. For example, examination system, civil service system, official assessment system, supervision system, official document system and so on. During the Enlightenment, China's official system was introduced into Europe under the feudal system, and Britain was the most successful transplant and improvement. Britain can continue to be the world hegemon for 200 years, which has a lot to do with the absorption and digestion of this system. Compared with the traditional governor system in Europe, the governor system has a distinct feudal aristocratic color. Therefore, the rulers only need to safeguard the interests of "family and the world", and there is no guarantee of morality and knowledge literacy. In addition, rulers are only individuals endowed with certain rights by "family and world". Effective implementation of social management requires a standardized civil service system. The Confucian "official world" has indeed made great contributions to this. According to the terminology of modern theory, Confucian "ruling the world" is essentially an indirect democracy, which is also the reason why it was introduced and used for reference by the British Empire. If we look at the history of British democracy, we will find that it has always adopted indirect democracy, which was later adopted by the United States.

No system can be perfect, and "ruling the world" also has its problems. Many official posts in ancient China originated from private servants and courtiers who lived in the world. Confucianism's "official world" continues the elements of private servants and internal ministers of "family world" official positions. We will still call the prime minister "the great housekeeper", which is actually the trace left by ancient domestic servants and internal ministers. However, the Confucian "official world" was in the contradiction between "family world" and "public world" from the beginning.

The appearance of the "official world" originally served the "local world". However, the ideal of Confucianism is to "govern the world", and "cultivate one's morality, govern the country and level the world" clearly expresses this ideal. Yao Shun's thought and behavior of taking the world as the public has become a model of ancient Confucian sages. Under the guidance of the ideal of "ruling the world", the Confucian model of "ruling the world" is honest and clean, so as to get rid of the manipulation of interest groups. And this kind of honest official who gets rid of interest groups is in line with the interests of "home to the world", so it is also needed by "home to the world". Even today, the ideal of honest and upright officials is still the common pursuit of different politics in the world. Anti-corruption is consistent in different social management methods in the world, and whether it is effective or not is another topic.

Looking at it from another angle, the boundary between "home world" and "public world" is also blurred. It is not clear whether the interests of the royal family are equal to those of the country or the world. For example, "the world of mortals rides a princess and talks and laughs" belongs to equating the world with the royal family. It was supposed to be a national communication system serving the world, and became a tool for members of the royal family to realize their private wishes. In contrast, the construction of Dujiangyan by Li Bing in Qin Dynasty actually benefited the people. If some people say that the Qin royal family wants to win more benefits for themselves, let the people get rich first, and then concentrate the wealth of the people in the hands of the royal family, Dujiangyan can also be regarded as indirectly serving the "home world". This explanation is reasonable at first glance, but on reflection, how can we explain that Dujiangyan still benefited the people who were not in the Qin Dynasty after the demise of the Qin Dynasty and continued to this day? Therefore, "family world" and "public world" are often mixed together. To some extent, Confucianism's "ruling the world" can be said to be a compromise between the ideal of "ruling the world" and the reality of "ruling the world". How the Confucian "official boundary" challenges, restricts and maintains the "family boundary" will be discussed next time.

Lu Yun.

Family and the world: it is a "hereditary" social system, specifically, it is passed from father to son.

Relatively speaking, the former is more conducive to social development.